The Narrative Arc of Resistance to Trump

Victor Davis Hansen's recent article in National Review was entitled, "The Double Standard of the Mueller Investigation." The first line read, "The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck." The last line read, "A reckoning is near."

In a recent broadcast of his weekday radio show, Rush Limbaugh reckoned that the "reckoning" would appear at the ballot box in 2018 and 2020. And, he said it would look like a decisive victory for the Republican Party. Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks was recently quoted suggesting that the unusually high number of Republican legislators in the House retiring, rather than running for re-election, may reflect their fear of violence, particularly in the wake of the shooting at the D.C. softball practice that severely wounded Rep. Steve Scalise. Brooks said, "There are a growing number of leftists who believe the way to resolve this is not at the ballot box but through threats and sometimes through violence and assassinations." Hanson wrote of a reckoning as in a denouement, from the French denoue, "to untie." It is the final act, the untying, of a complicated story line, at the end of a narrative arc. Hanson's last line--"A reckoning is near"--carries a nondescript, yet ominous, tone. Limbaugh's reckoning carries an optimistic tone, but for only half the voting public in America, made up, ultimately, of half winners and half losers. Brooks' reckoning conveys physical fear. The kind of fear that the people who live in the American Southwest's "Tornado Alley" feel when the sky darkens and the radar requires close watching. The thoughts of many Americans today run alternately through these three variant contemplations concerning the future, and through other derivative musing about where the narrative arc of the Resistance to Trump will end. Hanson's muse--that a reckoning, of some kind, is near--is the safest, and vaguest, projection. So how near is near? And what will the "reckoning" look like?

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America's Third Civil War began November 8, 2018

Limbaugh's reckoning is Blue Sky, assuming that another defeat felt by the Trump resistors will defeat the resistance, and not just lead to more intense resistance. Brooks' reckoning is visceral. It bleeds. And the bleeding, once begun, may compound as it spreads. An article entitled "America's Third Civil War began November 8, 2016" was posted earlier on this site. In part, it read, "Their [the resistance] means to reach that goal [of removing Trump] seem not to be hindered by truth, legality, propriety, fairness, or reason. They are impassioned, true-believing zealots determined to execute a non-violent--to date--coup d'etat of a duly elected American President. No matter what or how long it takes." With each passing week of resistance, the narrative arc moves toward a growing likelihood that what Mo Brooks fears is the most likely denouement. The dark clouds are not abating. The counter-resistance is expanding, in part aided, intentionally or not, by a tepid search at the Department of Justice for justice. Hansen wrote, "In one direction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump's campaign team might have done wrong in 2016. The oncoming train is slower but also larger. It involves congressional investigations, Department of Justice referrals, and inspector general's reports--mostly focused on improper or illegal FBI and DOJ behavior during the 2016 election." If it happens, Hansen's predicted "investigatory train wreck" may bring peace. Or, it may bring civil disorder with significant street violence. The U.S. infantry in the Vietnam War--many young draftees, not long out of high school, who slogged through their tour until they made it back to "the World," those that did--had words of dark humor when the skies all around looked ominous. They said... "It's darkest, right before it gets pitch black."